<p>(CBS/AP) Senate Republicans advocate sending $100 rebate checks to millions of taxpayers, and a Democrat is leading the campaign for a 60-day gasoline tax holiday. </p>
<p>In my opinion totally a wrong move. Let the high prices force people to change their gas guzzling addiction and their driving habbits. Short term pain may be good for the environment and hardrocarbon consumption.</p>
<p>$100 would make a big difference to my budget. Any money is better than no money. $100 may not mean much to you, but to most people it does. Think of all the kids who write essay after essay, just to earn a $100 scholarship… People don’t find it completely insignificant then… and to simba, gas can be 5 bucks a gallon and im not changing my driving habits. It’s just not possible… and I’d take any dime they’re going to give me towards it.</p>
<p>The federal gas tax alone brings in $50 Billion to the US Treasury. Federal, state and local gas taxes combined total close to $0.50 per gallon of gas. Instead of literally paying millions to govt workers to cut rebate checks, just eliminate the gas taxes. After a few SUV fill-ups, folks will have saved $100 in taxes alone. [cynical vies: Of course, that wouldn’t make a press conference worthwhile.]</p>
<p>A $100 rebate sounds great at first. Relief to the great unwashed, and shows how those compassionate folks in Congress/Senate are <em>always</em> thinking of their beloved electorate…</p>
<p>…except for one teensy question - just where is this money coming from? Thin air? Or do we just add it to the deficit, nobody seems to worry too much about WHO is going to pay it off one day?</p>
<p>Politicians. Gaaah. We should link their salaries to the amount of change in the federal debt/surplus while they are in office. If the deficit increases by $1 billion in May, make each of 'em PAY $100,000 to the US Treasury out of their own pockets in May. Now, that’s incentive.</p>
<p>(I know, I know - it’s not realistic. But let me dream for just a minute more…)</p>
<p>a 100 dollar ONE TIME rebate is pointless, that is just two tankfuls of gas…</p>
<p>With a 8.7BILLION dollar PROFIT in just three months from one company…during a time of war…my mymymy</p>
<p>that 100 is gone, puff, and may help for one week, after that, well, you are back where to were and worse</p>
<p>if you get 100 dollars back, it is used one time for gas or a fee or whatever, and yet, the next month you will spend that much more in gas, and the next month, and the next</p>
<p>We are getting ripped off, we all know it, if there was a valid reason for the increase in price, i would like to see it</p>
<p>remember that tax cut the oil companies needed and got? isn’t it business to take your profits and put them back into the business for research, expenses, etc. </p>
<p>Isn’t this really the government further sbsidizing the oil companies? (Gee, I can buy more gas, the government’s gonna pay me back!)</p>
<p>I agree with Simba, we need to change our driving habits (and vehicles); we pay much lower gas taxes than other countries. The non-drivers of the US subsidize the roads for everyone else.</p>
<p>HUH? What about the HUGE tax breaks? What did the go for if a company doesn’t use its profits for its own business…</p>
<p>All we heard was we need tax breaks so we can do research and help the American People… that was BS…</p>
<p>So they got big tax breaks, made huge profits, and now we may get some tax money back…does that equal the tax breaks>…I don’t think so</p>
<p>And was that “energy bill” supposed to encourage new sources of energy, and NOW the President is making a showing of discussing, wow, gee, maybe we need to look into that…a YEAR ago, that was the claim of the tax breaks…but NOW the president says something semi-serious</p>
<p>In 1974 (or was it 75?) gas prices spiked up, we had gas lines and many people dumped their big gas guzzlers and bought smaller cars. </p>
<p>If someone had asked me then what we would be driving in 30 years I don’t think my answer would have been, big SUVs that get 17 -22 miles per gallon on the highway. Of all the disappointments in this mess, the biggest for me is the lack of improvement in the fleet mileage per gallon. The cars burn clean - but the mileage still sucks!</p>
<p>and may I add, big SUVs that block the view ahead for anyone driving a small fuel efficient car. I say, let the prices go higher if that is what it will take to stop the madness. And yes, I too remember the lines and am amazed at how stupid we are and how short our memories.</p>
<p>did anyone notice that this was just a tactic by the republicans to try to force democrats to vote for oil drilling in Alaska?</p>
<p>This was a provision tacked on to a spending bill that has far more important things in it than a mere $100 check. The $100 rebate is simply a scheme so that when democrats vote against the bill because they dont want republicans to rape Alaska, the republicans can go around saying that the democrats dont care about the people and voted against a gas rebate even though that clearly was not what their decision was based on. Of course the media talks about the part of the bill that will catch people’s attention and ignores the real issues.</p>
<p>Too bad, as usual, the idiots in Washington fail to look beyond the next election for meaningful action. They are so horrible. They should all be fired. Trying to buy Novemebr votes for $100. Despicable.</p>